Bye Bye Plastic

Camille Guitteau: Building a Plastic-Free Music Industry with Bye Bye Plastic

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Camille Guitteau is the co-founder of Bye Bye Plastic Foundation, a disruptive non-profit that helps the music and events sector transition away from single-use, fossil-fuel plastics.

Founded five years ago alongside BLOND:ISH, Bye Bye Plastic operates across Western Europe and the USA, rooting its work in the principles of the Circular Economy. The foundation focuses on two core pillars: Education and Awareness — raising consciousness around the scale of plastic overconsumption and its ties to the fossil fuel sector — and Solution-oriented Guidance, offering direct, practical support for events and hospitality businesses to eliminate plastics from their operations.

Bye Bye Plastic approaches change by activating every stakeholder in the music industry, starting with DJs and artists as the most powerful voices for action. Their goal: to create a future where every dance floor can host a #PlasticFreeParty.

Camille’s motivation to launch the organization came from her personal experience on plastic-littered dance floors during a summer of festivals — an experience that made her realize how much needed to change. Prior to co-founding Bye Bye Plastic, she built her career in radio, events, and marketing, later working at Gracenote in Amsterdam before shifting her focus fully toward environmental impact.

Now leading a remote-first, international team of event and sustainability specialists, Camille continues to drive Bye Bye Plastic’s mission forward. Their 2024 Impact Report showcases recent achievements and sets out their roadmap for 2025, backed by a series of targeted programs aimed at accelerating the music industry's transition away from plastic.

What was your personal tipping point that made you realise the music industry needed to go plastic-free — and that you had to be part of that change?

My personal a-ha moment went down the same way as my co-founder BLOND:ISH’s did, and I think it goes the same for a lot of people;

Realising all of a sudden this plastic trash piling up on the dance floor was here so uninvited, was killing my vibe (I was spending more time flipping bottles & cups with my feet that using those feet to fully let go & dance), and actually made zero sense no matter the way you’d try to turn this.

I was at a time where I had taken a short break to think through what would be the next steps of my career, which I knew would need to infuse more purpose but still wanted to stay in music. So it took combining those observations and getting to the conclusion that I knew what to get back to work on!

Five years in, what’s one moment with Bye Bye Plastic that made you think, “This is actually working”?

I’ve got to mention two moments — one from the very beginnings, and one more recent.

The early one came just before the pandemic, when we launched the Eco-Rider movement in December 2019. It spread like wildfire. By January and February 2020, people across the industry were calling us, wanting to collaborate. It was a huge validation! — and then, of course, March came around, and the rest is history….

More recently, it was serendipitously receiving not one, but two awards on the same day: one for “Best Initiative Using Music to Promote Environmental Sustainability” from the Music Cities Awards (which we had applied for), and one that came as a total surprise from the International Music Managers Forum for our work in “Music Activism.” Being seen — and praised — like that? It’s proof that our hard work pays!

Plastic on the dance floor is the symptom — what’s the bigger system BBP is really trying to shift?

At Bye Bye Plastic, we’re working to shift culture — which is what feeds the system. We’re up against two intertwined cultural mindsets: the single-use culture, which prevails in the events sector (and is rooted in the “take, make, discard” model of the linear economy), and the fossil-fuel culture which prioritizes “cheap, fast, convenient.”.

More sustainable options often currently struggle to compete on those terms — not because they’re not good, but because they’re new entering the market.

They need time, but most importantly they need support and momentum in order to build scalable supply chains, in order to grow in competitiveness against the giants of the fossil world they’re up against, and settle in as the new norm. We’re here to give them that push, accelerate that movement.

What do you say to event organisers who think “sustainability is too expensive or complicated” to prioritize?

I’d say: you’d be surprised how “hackable” sustainability actually is once you accept that it will likely also have to touch upon your operations, and your P&L (just not always in the negative way you’re projecting).

The real barrier isn’t money or logistics — it’s mindset. If you’re looking for a magic fix that requires zero effort, that unicorn doesn’t exist. But if you’re open to evolving and building resilience into your operations, then sustainability IS where you should be looking.

We’re seeing amazing innovations — circular product designs and new materials that actually save time, space, and money. They’re cutting hours of labor a week for teams and bringing long-term wins on both environmental and financial fronts.

I’m convinced that if the music events sector would bring even half the creative energy it pours into stage design and marketing into building circular systems, this industry would be unstoppable — resilient, vibrant, and straight-up dope.

  1. From backstage riders to bar setups, where do you see the most unnecessary plastic in the music ecosystem — and how easy is it to replace?

  2. You work with principles of the circular economy — what does that actually look like on a dance floor or in a green room?

  3. Can you share an example of a venue or festival that made the leap and went truly #PlasticFreeParty — what changed for them

Which of Bye Bye Plastic’s current programs or initiatives are you most excited about right now — and how can others get involved?

The Zero Plastic Club program we launched in France has been such a proud moment. It’s another proof that our recipe — collective action accelerating environmental transition — really works.

Thanks to this initiative, the French club scene is now preventing over 10 tonnes of single-use plastics from being generated every year. We’re currently exploring how to bring this program to the UK, Spain, NYC, and beyond.

So if you’re a club operator, owner, resident artist, or even just a passionate regular, and you want to plant the seeds #PlasticFreeParty values in your scene — speak up, reach out, and let it be heard! That’s how change really enters the room.


How do you balance awareness-raising with actionable guidance — and why do we need both?

Great question! We always say: Knowledge is power, and power is action.

You need to understand what’s really going on before you can take meaningful steps to change it. But we’ve never wanted to stay in the “awareness only” lane, especially given that climate action often inspires a lot of doom & gloom while the music & events sector sits all the way on the opposite side of the emotional scale. At Bye Bye Plastic we're not just preaching — we’re building. A resilient, circular future is possible faster if we get our hands dirty, together.

Now some organisations are built to write & influence policy, defend legislations & citizens right, and they are equally essential! Others offer sector-specific consulting. I think BLOND:ISH & I just knew from the start we wanted to do both — raise collective awareness (create momentum), and offer hands-on transition tools (accelerate that momentum). That’s the benefit of being artist-led — we live inside this complex, connective industry, and we want to move it from the inside out.

With your 2025 plans in motion, what’s next on the disruption radar — and what kind of support do you need to get there?

  1. If we’re talking disruption, we’re getting ready for our first time at NYC Climate Week — and we’re not going to show up with “just another panel.” We want to make a lasting impact, something people carry with them long after the event. Still drawing the lines of this presence as we speak, but definitely a space to watch us head towards!

  2. We’ll also be in London June 19th for an upcoming announcement. And all across France and Belgium this Summer with our national #RameneTaGourde (#BYOB) campaign, which we’re currently recruiting volunteers for.

  3. As for what we need: any Eco-Rider artist, agency or even aspiring supporter wanting to push the environmental needle further, we’d like to hear from you as we’re working on augmenting our resources for you this year. And I guess it’s always worth remembering that currently only 3% of global philanthropy goes toward environmental causes… Needles to say, that's not nearly enough to compete with the scale of change needed. So for Bye Bye Plastic — and for every mission-driven org fighting the good fight — we’re always stocked to receive this fuel!